DURING this Gospel Age there has been a
work of God, arranged for and carried on
by Him.
And that work is the selection
of the Seed of Abraham.
The first opportunity
of being of this Seed was granted to
the natural seed of AbrahamIsrael after
the flesh.
The work succeeded so far as
the gathering of an elect company from
among them was concerned.
And having
accomplished this part of the work, God set
the Jewish nation aside, while the further work of the
selection of the Elect from among the other nations has
continued for eighteen centuries.

"Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for,
but the Election hath obtained it, and the rest were
blinded."
The blindness is merely until the remaining
members of the elect class have been found; and then
God's favor will return to Natural Israel.
"And so all
Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come
out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob; for this is My Covenant with them,
when I shall take away their sins."
Israel made a failure
respecting the Election, except a few.
And yet they are still beloved for the fathers' sakes.Romans 11:7,26-28.

The one work of the Gospel Age has been the selection
of the Spiritual Seed of Abraham, through whom all the
families of the earth shall be blessedshall become of
the earthly seed.
This Promise, that all the families of [R5302 : page 262] the earth shall be blessed, cannot be fulfiled until the
Spiritual Seed shall first be completed.
"If ye be Christ's,
then are ye Abraham's Seed, and heirs according to the
Promise."
There has been but one work from first to
last.
And so we read: "One soweth, and another reapeth.
I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor;
other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors."
(John 4:35-38.)
Whether it was at the beginning, or
now at the close of the Agethe time of the reapingit is
all one work, and there is the one purpose being served,
the gathering of the Elect.

HUMANITARIAN WORK

If asked as to the reason why we will not enter into
and engage in humanitarian work, building hospitals,
looking after the poor, doing slum work, etc., our
answer would be, We are so engaged.
We have agents
all over the country attending to that very work.
In every
county in the state there is an almshouse.
The hospitals
are taking care of the sick and the blind.
The money to
do this with is provided by the stateand it is the money
of the citizens which is used.
If anybody assists in doing
some additional work for the poor, he has that privilege,
he has that right.

We believe it to be our duty to be humanitarian, and
our state laws are humanitarian.
New York is a first
class state.
And if we were in Pennsylvania, we would
be able to say the same.
And so in respect to any state
we know of in this country.
As respects these humanitarian
efforts, the reason we do not engage in them more
particularly is that we think they are well managed by
the "powers that be," according to the Government and
the will of the people.
And any one who thinks differently
holds different views from the majority.
We stand in
with the majority as to the proper way of dealing with
these questions.
Why do we not more particularly take
part in slum work?
We understand that it is not for us to
do.
We cannot do better along this line than the majority.
To interfere in these matters would imply that we have
not confidence in the laws.
We have no right to go about
interfering with the laws.

Why do we not engage in holding revivals?
For the
reason that those who engage in the holding of revivals
are doing something that the Scriptures never instructed
us to do.
Nothing in the Bible says that we are to go
and pull the people in to hear some one speak.
Let each
do as seemeth him best.
If there is any one who thinks
differently, and he can do any good, all well and good; if
he does more harm than good, then that, also, is his
responsibility.
Our responsibility is to follow the course
laid down by the Bible.
And the Bible does not say
anything about holding revival meetings.
Those who
wish to do this have the privilege of so doing.
This is a
free country.
But we do not find that Jesus did this.
To
any one who thinks differently, we give full liberty to do
according to his will, and find no fault with him.

Why do you not take up collections for the missionary
societies? is asked.
We answer, You have a right to
contribute to your missionary society.
It is not ours, it is yours. You will be responsible to the Master for what
you do, so you have full right and privilege to do whatever
you think properand we have the same.
What we
are trying to do for the heathen is to show them that
God is Love.

We are trying to show them that the theory of
eternal torment is not the Truth, and that if they
really knew the teachings of the Bible, they would see
that God is a God of Love, and they would love Him;
and this would be a helpful thing to them.
You have a
right to create a missionary fund.
We would not throw
a straw in your way.
By and by you will hear whether
the Master says, "Well done!" to your work or to ours.

As to why we do not engage in Socialism: Socialism
is impracticable.
We are glad that Socialism has done a
great deal for the world.
We are glad that we have a
measure of Socialismthe street railways and cars, gas
and water systems, etc.
If, for instance, any family
wanted to make its own gas and have its own plant for
filtering water, etc., to do so would be quite an expense.
And if each wanted to have its own street car lines, etc.,
the streets would be crowded up too much.
But when
Socialism goes on to tell us that it is the savior of the
world, we dispute the claim.
We hold that, on the contrary,
Socialism is about to bring the world into anarchy.
Not that Socialists wish to do so, but they are unwise.

We would be very much inclined to favor many phases
of Socialism, were it not that we see in the Bible that
God has a very much better way of accomplishing the
same results.
However, the Bible assures us that there
is a great time of trouble coming, before the blessings can
come.
But first God is gathering out a saintly company,
and testing and proving them, so that He can entrust to
them the government of the future.
They will constitute
the theocracy of God.

We are fully convinced that the Bible is correct, that
it is the Truth, and that nothing can bring about the
desired result but the Kingdom of God.
We are laborers
together with God.
He is working with us, and we are
working with Him.
What is the work? God's present
work is finding the saintly, the true, and guiding them,
fitting them for the spiritual Kingdom to be introduced.
Therefore we are working for Socialism to an extent, but
working in a different manner.
Socialists are working
according to their light, and we according to our light.

SOME GLARING INCONSISTENCIES

The various denominations represent Christian people
with good desires, good intentions, and having certain
fixed ideas respecting God and His will.
No two of these
agree.
Many of their beliefs are thoroughly inconsistent.
There are over six hundred different denominations.
It
is unreasonable for us to believe, as the Baptists do, that
any one will go to a place or condition of everlasting
torment for not having been put into water over his head!
We cannot believe anything so unreasonable.
And just
the same with our Presbyterian friends and their doctrine.
They are certainly sincere.
They have taken hold of the
doctrine of John Calvin.

If John Calvin had had the proper view, he never
could have signed the death warrant to burn his Christian
brother Servetus at the stake.
This fact teaches us that
he was not a proper teacher of theology, however good
he might have been in mind and heart.
And when we
come to look at his theology, that God fore-ordained that
a little handful of humanity should be saved, not for any
good that they had done, but of His sovereign will; and
that He equally fore-ordained all the non-elect to an
eternity of tortureif we believed such doctrine as this,
we would believe that God was the veriest devil we could
imagineto cause hundreds of millions to come into existence,
knowing that He had nothing for them but an
eternity of suffering!
That is a most devilish thought!
We cannot believe that theory.
If we did, we could not
worship God!

And then as to the Methodists, and their Free Grace!
This does not give one much show.
How could that
Grace be free?only one in ten thousand ever having a
chance of getting it!
We are sorry for them if that [R5302 : page 263] view appears to their minds as rational.
We would not
be a Methodist or a Presbyterian for a million dollars a
year!
Not that we do not love our Presbyterian, Methodist
and Catholic friends, etc., but it would not be right
for us to so believe.
We find so much error in any one
of their doctrines!
We find that not one of them is in
accord with the Bible.

We prefer to stand by Jesus and the Apostles and all
who are in harmony with them.
We prefer to stand for
what the Bible calls the Church of the First-born, and for
whatever the Bible teaches.
And when we thus take our
stand, we find that the Bible teaches something beautifulthat God is indeed preparing a Church, to be associated
with Jesus in His Kingdom; and we find that nobody is
to be roasted eternallyquite to the contrary, they are all
to be blessed with an opportunity to live forever.

We find that during the thousand years of Messiah's
Kingdom, Christ and His Church will be reigningnot
to oppress the world, but to lift them up, to break the
shackles of sin and death.
We find that under this blessed
arrangement, all will be brought to a knowledge of the
Truth; and that at the close of that thousand-year period
Christ will have finished His work; and that as a result
of His Reign, not only will all be destroyed who love
unrighteousness, sin, and who refuse to live in harmony
with God, but all who were willing to come into harmony
will have bowed the knee.
"Unto Him [Christ] every
knee shall bow and every tongue confess."

These are the reasons why we cannot work hand-in-glove
with those who have opposite theories and opposite
ideas.
We cannot associate with systems and be bound
up to creeds that are dishonoring to God and contrary
to His Word, the Bible!

THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION

There will be many who will have their chance in the
future who do not have their chance now.
But whatever
knowledge they have now will not do them any harm.
A certain cast of mind cannot receive the things of God
now.
The Scriptures say that they cannot appreciate a
God of Justice and Love.
Therefore "none of the wicked
shall understand" is the statement of the Scriptures.
If
they could understand, if they could get the right thought,
they would see that every transgression, in proportion to
its degree of wilfulness, will be punished in the future;
hence they would know that they are treasuring up to
themselves wrath.

God has established, as a general law, the principle
that whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap. Every
step a man takes down must be retraced.
If every one
knew this, it would make mankind very much more careful.
If a man knows that there is to be a just punishment,
it will make him very much more careful than if he
thinks it will be an unjust punishment.
Our thought is
that if the people could get the proper focus on the subject
of the penalty for sin, it would be the most potent
factor in convincing them of the propriety of righteous
living.
Furthermore, we might cite to the denominations
the fact that with all their preaching of eternal torment,
they succeed in driving but a comparatively small number
into holiness of lifeinto becoming footstep followers
of Jesus, character copies of God's dear Son.